The teenager began hiding weapons - “knives, sticks, shanks, brass knuckles, whatever” - in places he frequented, so that he’d always have one within arm’s reach.

At his lowest point he tried to find an assault rifle, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

“It was going to be a large explosion of pain and suicide. I was going to try and kill a lot of people and then kill myself,” he recalls in a video recorded for Next.

Last week's school shooting in Florida left 17 dead. (Getty)

“It was not directed at the people. It was directed at myself.

“If I had a rifle I would have been a killer, but if I had love I wouldn’t have wanted a rifle.”

Stark acknowledges that in his case, poor mental health had contributed to him contemplating carrying out a school shooting; at the time, he was severely depressed and suicidal, and felt worthless.

However, he says a lack of love had been the far greater factor - and believes this was also the case for the suspected gunman in the Parkland school shooting on February 14.

Stark, who now describes himself as a family man, credits an act of kindness and “true friendship” with pulling him out of his darkest days.

Aaron Stark said as a teen, he lacked love. (Next with Kyle Clark)
“I have personally had my life saved by someone taking me over to their house … and their mum made me a blueberry peach pie, and I didn’t realise that it was for me,” Stark says.

“I was literally suicidal that night and nobody knew ... I think that’s what we need to give more of now. We need to show more love.”

Ultimately, Stark says it was his lack of access to a firearm that prevented his name from appearing on the long list of gunmen who’ve carried out school shootings in the US.

“Some people blame this violence on the media, or video games, or music. We call those people morons,” he writes.

“But there is one thing that would have made it all different … I am not a school shooter because I didn't have access to guns.

“Guns don't kill people, people kill people. But people with guns kill lots of people.”